This is a warning to all foreigners. If you go near the shoeshine men outside Sirkeci station you may get ripped of ! Make sure that you agree the price in writing before the transaction and have it countersigned in front of a notary. Otherwise you may end up paying far too much.

This is dreadful and I feel an assault on my civil liberties. I am thinking of taking leagl action against this monster who overcharged me ! It is proof positive that the sole aim of all Turkish males is to profit from me and other ghostly and gullible foreigners.

Actually, I was going to put out a word of warning about the kebab sellers on Sivas Street here in Attaturkburg. If you don't read the fine print on their signs, you might not realize you get ayran and a sweet along with your doner. Some of these unscrupulous swarthy heathen Turks have been known to rip teachers off by only giving them only the doner and charging the full 700 000 TL!! That's almost 50 american cents! I have reported a few of them to the human rights commission but it may prove to be a long haul.

I have been ripped off a total of one time by a shoe shine guy in front of besiktas Iskele about 3 years ago. much to my chagrin the cingine took off with my 5 million tl as I proceeded to cuss him in 4 different languages and bash his shoeshine stand and bust what few bottles and brushes he had in his kit. I guarantee you it probably cost him 2-3 days work to replace the damage I did. The funny thing is that there was a cop there the whole tiem watching me do this. I bet he thinks twice about playing with yabanci.

This is to the guys complaining about getting ripped off. You people make me sick! Big deal getting ripped off 50 cents! So you have to show off your manly egotism by smashing his livleyhood? get a grip, there are more important things in life to think about.

Betty, Betty... was it not horribly obvious how deeply lodged into our cheeks our tongues were! Obviously you are new to the Turkey forums...
Honestly, 700 bin is not exactly something to fret about (mind you, if it were a million I might cry!).